The Medallion novel Chapter 48

Frowning, Marcia touched her back subconsciously. Worry was written all over her beautiful eyes. So tensed up, she began mumbling to herself, "Oh, no. I should not have trusted that guy. What if he cannot keep the secret? What if he accidentally lets slip? To avert a disaster, I have to take precautions.

In the first place, he has lied about his name, but since he is a royal spirit manipulator, it will not be difficult to find him. To get started, I'll need to investigate his whereabouts. I can't rest until I find him. Only then will I be at peace..." Suddenly, Marcia calmed down and stopped mumbling. An unexpected idea had struck her.

In an abrupt turn, her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Where are the maids?" she commanded.

Promptly, two maids in white brocade showed up and bowed in deference. Respectfully they asked, "What is the order, General?"

The dragon mark on the left arm of Marcia faintly flickered, then, by a mere lift of her finger, the water below them swooshed through a thin and long drift. An outline of a face soon condensed into shape by her magical powers.

"He is a royal spirit manipulator. I need you to find him at all cost. I don't mind even if you have to scour the entire Imperial City. As soon as you find him, come back and let me know. By all means, keep it all below, to avoid raising eyebrows," Marcia cautioned, after thinking for a moment.

"Yes, as you wish," the two maids readily took the order.

They left and began their search straight away, but they made every effort to stay under the rudder. So everything went on as usual, for several days without any surprise.

Daily, Mia made things so hard for Rocky that he wondered if this was karma, paying him back for misdeeds of his previous life—a life which he had no control over. Had he dumped her for another woman in their former life? She was pushing him to the wall with her so-called 'special treats'. Mia was proving to be a difficult sparring partner in his martial arts training. Fortunately, he could learn from Mia the Illusion Technique she applied in their daily practice. He could now apply it quite skillfully himself. The only consolation he had was that Mia was pushing him to give his best in training and he hoped it was good for his strength and endurance. All the bruises and injuries aside, there was a silver lining to the harsh treatment that Mia dished out on him.

There was a total of six palm, feet and finger movements in the Illusion Technique of the spiritual martial arts—two for each part of the body. Apart from illusions, the other elements of spiritual martial arts were not so much complicated. General formation in spiritual martial arts required specialization for best results. Each disciple had to choose a skill and stick to that, for the rest of the process. That meant everyone having a specialty, either in palm, feet or finger skills. But Illusion Techniques were quite different from the general spiritual martial arts. Here, one could practice the Illusion Techniques while showing no nature of his or her dragon spiritual power. Illusion Techniques always left room for tweaking and changes whenever necessary. By doing so, illusions allowed the advantage of unpredictable, surprise moves. Illusion cultivators could attack using any movement, including movements of the fingers, palms, and feet. In short, illusion gave cultivators freedom to switch between skills at will, which would leave the enemy reeling in confusion.

Right now, a man and a beast were embroiled in fierce fighting, deep in the thick woods.

"Whirlwind Kick..." Yelling at the top of his lungs, Rocky moved in a split second and flew up to kick. His movements were blistering.

However, Uriah was equally swift in defense, leaping, and dodging every kick without any sign of panic. On counter attack, he hit out at Rocky with his quick, powerful palm.

"Air-splitting Palm..." At the meantime, Rocky had no intention to retreat but to sustain the assault by his palm skills, until Uriah could not put up anymore. But Uriah, unfazed at Rocky's palm roared, wagged his two tails and struck back bravely by his own palm, answering fight fire with fire! It was an epic battle of spiritual forces, without any tricks, pitting a man against a beast. With powerful bolts of energy from each side, they raised a cloud of smoke and dust.